UK to USA or other long distances
 

Following on from the other thread about the tragic accident in Scotland.

I was reading a thread online a while back about a chap who wanted to fly his GA aircraft back to the UK from the USA and failed. Had to be have it shipped half way.

Does it actually go on quite a lot then? i would be interested in reading about such trips. Find it fascinating about such light aircraft doing such distances.

Liam

If goes on all the time, all over the world. The few dozen people who do it seriously don't shout about the details.

Quite a few light aircraft get delivered from the USA this way. Type "Ferrying Light Aircraft" into Google.

Florida-Belgium
 

...in June.

Really looking forward to it!

Sam.

Check out www.earthrounders.com and the sites it links to. People fly around the world in R22s even - although they have to arrange for mid-ocean refueling on a chartered freighter to do so.

One of my former Dutch instructors had a sideline flying over aircraft that private individuals had purchased in the States. With the current strength of the Euro v US$ I would image that side of his business is booming at present. Saw him arrive at EHBK once in a C-182, fully laden with extra fuel tank, survival gear / dingy etc etc etc. From memory he usually routed Long Island / Newfoundland / Greenland / Iceland / N.Ireland / Netherlands.:D

My aircraft did Florida and back before I owned it - download and read Nigels Blog - it's very interesting reading.

Er...

My RV6 flew round the world...(I wasn't in it at the time)

http://www.chasingthemorningsun.com

Read what Polly Vacher has done http://www.worldwings.org/

great reading. I'd love to do something like this at some point.

England to Australia in a small aircraft. I'm sure someone will join me :)

Once you look into this, you find there isn't any problem doing it.

It's much easier if you can go IFR, because you then get an implicit clearance along the route (in most places) whereas with VFR anybody can pop up and say you cannot proceed... and you have to do Plan B.

Most of the work is logistics. The flying is just ... flying.

Once out of Europe, you definitely want to use the services of a specialised overflight permit company e.g. this one. They can get avgas shipped ahead in drums, even arrange visas. I've been as far as Crete (both VFR and IFR, different years) and that was pretty easy. Recently I looked into doing Luxor HELX and after wasting 2 months trying to communicate with various people at the Egyptian embassy, I gave up. But an overflight permit outfit can get you visas in a few days or less.

The 3rd world is all about who you know and that is putting it politely. One of the hardest trips I've read was Simon Oliphant-Hope's trek across Russia (around the world) in a turbine helicopter. He spend some 5 digits bribing his way across Russia.